In one late-game mission set in an expanse of French countryside, I was spotted killing a couple of German soldiers and an alarm was raised forcing me to flee. But while they can certainly be deadly in numbers, they will also often march mindlessly into your crosshairs, struggle with basic pathfinding, or veer unpredictably between different states of alertness. It’s also a neat touch that if you wing them they’ll sometimes run away clutching at their wound. I like the fact that enemy soldiers will often sprint desperately for the nearest alarm tower to radio for help once you’ve engaged them in combat, resulting in a gripping burst of tension as you scramble to take them out before they can call in reinforcements. The X-ray killcam is more disturbingly detailed than ever, filling Sniper Elite 5 with more ugly headshots than a struggling actor's glovebox. It’s certainly still a formula that regularly provides some grisly good fun, but it also feels fairly familiar to my experience with Sniper Elite 4 - right down to the occasionally wonky AI which at times seemed about as crudely realised as a toilet stall swastika no matter how much I increased the combat difficulty setting. Plus, the X-ray killcam is more disturbingly detailed than ever, filling Sniper Elite 5 with more ugly headshots than a struggling actor’s glovebox. You can still tag your targets with binoculars, tamper with generators to mask the sounds of your shots, and take advantage of environmental hazards like explosive barrels in order to force these fascists into a fiery finish. While you are now able to shimmy up to sniping spots that would have previously been unreachable, the actual experience of sniping remains largely unchanged from Sniper Elite 4. You also have a new focus ability that allows you to spot enemies through walls in order to avoid a potential ambush, and tools like bolt cutters can cut through weakened sections of fences to create even more optional paths to an objective. Sniper Elite 5’s eight different environments take good advantage of Fairburne’s expanded movement set, offering multiple entry points to each facility be they through the front door, around the side, or through some hard-to-reach open window on an upper floor, and I enjoyed the added freedom to execute each infiltration from almost any angle of my choosing. While occasionally I found myself with my back to the wall and no other option than to shoot my way out, for the most part the open level design allowed me to be less of a sitting duck and something more closely resembling a sniping Spider-Man. While each stalk through a heavily guarded area inevitably starts out as a silent crouch-walk, the moment things go loud you are now capable of quickly mantling over low walls and through windows, gaining some distance with a zipline, clambering up vines and rope netting, or sliding down inclines to break the line of sight and regroup for a counterattack. Thankfully, while Sniper Elite 5's storyline might be staid, Fairburne himself has never been more nimble or as adventurous, making him more fun to control.
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